Freaks
by Undead Author
Summary: Rachel and Finn get into a fight. Make up. All to the tunes of RENT! love it. Read, review, and enjoy. Rachel/Finn


**A/N: Yay. Glee fic. I looove this show, and since it starts again next week, I've sort of had it on the brain. The result of which is a Rachel/Finn RENT-related story! I got the idea from the user alifab at LJ! I recommend you read her fics, they're awesome. (:**

**Note: **

Finn hadn't had a very good day at school. He had bombed his Algebra 2 test, he had slipped in a puddle in the courtyard, and he hadn't seen Rachel all day. Usually, he didn't notice, but lately he'd begun to grow more aware of her. And… he wasn't really bothered by her anymore. It was strange.

The last bell rang and he slung his backpack over his shoulder as he made his way to the auditorium for Glee practice. All he really wanted to do, lame as it may have sounded, was sing. It was like a type of therapy, he'd discovered. He knew it was a cliché, but his problems just seemed to go away when he was working on a song or a routine. It was much better than football; there you had to channel all your problems into a sort of unresolved anger so you could take it out on the other team. In Glee, it didn't really matter what issues you had because you just didn't think about them.

As he entered the auditorium, he heard a voice he immediately recognized as Rachel's. He hadn't heard this song before, though. He listened as she sung it quietly, probably to warm her voice up.

_The heart may freeze, or it can burn_

_The pain will ease if I can learn_

_There is no future, there is no past_

_I live this moment as my last_

"What're you singing?" he asked, stepping closer to her so he could hear more clearly. She turned around, jumping slightly as she did so.

Smirking, he said, "You're not the only one who can be a ninja, you know."

"I—I'm singing RENT."

"RENT?"

"It's a musical. The song's called _Another Day_."

"It's pretty. You were doing a really good job."

"Thank you."

There was a pregnant pause as Finn shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "So… what's RENT about?"

Rachel gaped at him. "Finn Hudson, are you actually telling me that you have not experienced the harmonic phenomenon known as the rock opera RENT?"

"Uhm… yes?"

She almost squealed. "I cannot _believe_ you haven't heard of it! Well, it's about these people, Mark, Roger, Mimi, Maureen, Joanne, Collins, and my favorite, Angel. Mimi, Roger, Collins, and Angel all have HIV—"

Finn's eyes widened. "They _all_ have it? Did they, like, get it from each other?"

"No. Can I continue?"

"Sure, I guess."

"Anyway, Mark is a cinematographer—"

"A what?"

"He films things. _Anyway_, he's filming this documentary. And his roommate, Roger, his girlfriend April slit her wrists because she found out they were HIV positive. But then he meets Mimi, who's a drug addict, and isn't sure he wants to start anything with her. And then Angel, a drag queen, meets Collins—what?"

Finn wrinkled his nose. "This sounds really, really weird."

"But it's not weird! It's beautiful!"

"Really? Drug addicts, AIDS, and drag queens? Sounds like a musical for freaks to me."

Before he could take back what he'd said it was too late.

Rachel's mouth dropped. Her bottom lip started quivering and her eyes narrowed. "I _hate_ that word," she said in a meaner tone than Finn had ever heard from her. "You know I hate that word."

"Rachel, I'm sor—"

"Oh, you're _sorry_? You're sorry, are you?" She laughed bitterly. "Well, that makes everything better, doesn't it, Finnegan?"

He growled. "I told you _never_ ever to call me that!"

"Oh, did you? I apologize; I'll keep that in mind the next time you call me a freak!"

"I'm sorry for—"

"No, Finn, I don't think you are. What you fail to realize is that my entire life I've been called that word by people like you. Whether it's because I don't enjoy sports as the rest of high school apparently does, or my dads, or my MySpace videos, I have never fit in. And then Glee comes along and I actually _belong _somewhere." He thought he heard something in her breaking; her voice shrunk and he didn't think he'd _ever_ heard her be that quiet. "I thought you understood that." And he blinked and she was running out of the auditorium.

"Rachel, I—"

But she was gone and he felt like a complete idiot.

_xoxoxo_

He honestly didn't know what he was doing at her house, three days later, on her doorstep. His fist was raised and knocking on the door, and he stared at it as if it were a separate entity from his body. _Stop! Stop it!_ But it was too late. He was knocking, and from what he could hear, it sounded like someone was coming to answer the door.

He tried to turn around to run, run _far away_, but it seemed that his whole body was on a mutiny against his brain, and wouldn't do what he told it to no matter what.

The door opened and one of Rachel's dads was there. "Yes?" he said, eyeing him critically.

"Uhm. Hi. I'm one of Rachel's, uh, friends, and I was wondering if I could talk to her…?"

The man glanced at his watch. "At… 9:19 at night?"

"Yes, sir." Finn squirmed.

Mr. Berry sighed. "Come in. Rachel's room is upstairs, second room on the left."

Finn obliged. So, he thought, this is where Rachel lived. It suited her. There were framed, signed posters of musicals, some he'd heard of, and mostly he hadn't. He made his way up the stairs and to her room.

Rapping his knuckles awkwardly on her door, he said, "Uhm, Rachel? It's Finn."

"Finn? What are you doing here?" she yelled through her door.

"I—I came to apologize…"

"Go away!"

He frowned. "Well, no, I'm not going away. I'm gonna say I'm sorry 'cause I am. I didn't think when I said that and I'm just… really sorry," he finished lamely.

She was silent.

"I, uh, I watched RENT."

More silence.

"It was really good, like you said."

The door was cracked open a bit. "Is that all?"

"I cried when Angel died?"

He swore he saw a hint of a smile. "Did you really?"

He studied his shoes. "Uh huh."

"So…" she said, opening the door wider, "I guess this means you're a freak too, then."

He laughed. "Rachel, I have… never _not _been a freak."

Her frosty front was dropped, and she smiled that smile that knocked him on his back nearly every time he saw it. "Was it not the best musical ever?"

"It was really, really good."

"What's your favorite song?"

"I liked _What You Own._"

She opened the door as wide as it could go and walked over to her laptop. "I've got the live on Broadway DVD, wanna watch it?"

He followed her, smiling. "I'd like that."


End file.
